Life At Lydia's House: 2016

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

2016 Projects Review

It always helps me see what I have accomplished when I go back and review the projects that I got completed in the past year. There are many gaps in my blogging story each year because I do so many projects that I don’t consider “blog worthy.” I rarely publish any of my Christmas decor because I have some paid decorating jobs which I do first and by the time I get my own home decorated the blogosphere has been overdone with Christmas photos out the wazoo! One project that has not yet made an apearance on the blog was a fixer upper home that my son and daughter in law purchased this past fall that our family and my daughter in law’s family spent many hours making cosmetic improvements on. You can click on any of the green highlighted text to go directly to the post about the photos.

My biggest project this year was updating my dining room for the One Room Challenge last spring.

You can read about that project by clicking here. That post also has links to previous posts with all of the details.

I gave the screened porch at our summer cottage a much needed update. You can read about that by clicking here.

My son got married in May and I completed a couple of projects for the wedding.

I made this mason jar chandelier for the reception tent. You can get the details here.

I also made these lazy Susans for the rehearsal dinner tables. You can see those here.

I refurbished this chair for my mother.

Even though it has a plant in it in this photo, I completed this beverage stand as a Home Depot DIH workshop project. Unfortunately it was not a positive experience. My hope is that my local Home Depot will work to improve these workshops.

This copycat tea kettle was a quick and easy project.

Of course my year also included plenty of travel, most undocumented on the blog. I did blog about our trip to Arkansas to visit Allen Smith’s Garden Home at Moss Mountain Farm.

I can’t tell you how many homes I have toured but this is one of the few that I could move into today and not change a thing! There is so much to see in that post!

The gardens were the icing on the cake. I did 4 posts on them so you can start with this one and follow them through here, here, and here.

Wow! That was a busy year! I’m linking to the Top Projects Link at Southern Hospitality. Click over to see lots of inspiration!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Reindeer Recipes Blog Tour Week 3

Today is the third and final week of the Reindeer Recipes blog tour. Today I’m sharing my snowman table that I leave up through January. Sometimes everything looks somewhat stark immediately after removing all of the Christmas decor so I leave this up to transition from Christmas to winter.

This table makes our sunroom feel cheerful even on a cold and gloomy day!

Those cute snowman mugs were gifted to us several years ago and they make me happy every time I pull them out. Even when you don’t have time to cook, this tablescape makes eating a sandwich fun.

The snowman tree centerpiece was made by my daughter in law. Isn’t he the cutest thing you’ve seen lately‘

I’ve had the plaid ribbon that’s around his neck for years because it goes with the mugs so well so I added it to his scarf.

Just as a side note, that big pink geranium on the urn in the corner is 18 months old and still going strong. My mother gave it to me for mothers day in 2015. I plan to do a blog post soon on houseplants and keeping them alive!

Be sure to visit my friends who are also participatingin the blog tour. Their blogs are linked at the below.

Life At Lydia's House

Totally Tailgates

A very special thanks to Heather at Totally Tailgates for getting the tour together!

I hope that you are taking time to enjoy the season! Because I have been enjoying the season it has taken me a little longer but I have finally gotten the decorating done and the house will be clean today. Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Christmas in the Dining Room

Welcome to week 2 of the Reindeer Recipes blog tour! I am so glad you are here. If you’re new, I hope you will take some time to browse around a bit. The first few days of December are so busy for me that I don’t have time to do a lot of cooking so instead of sharing a recipe today I am sharing my dining room tablescape.

I tried to change things up just a little but it just didn’t feel right so my table decor this year is very similar to previous years.

For the centerpiece I’m using a favorite jewel tone nativity set and a few angels from my collection.

The mirror is decked with greenery, beaded fruit, and cherubs.

I have also used greenery and beaded fruit on the table. For added sparkle, I used silver trays instead of place mats. The dinnerware is one of my prized possesions. It is Bethlehem Christmas Dinnerware that I designed and had produced in 2003. I had searched for years for Christmas dinnerware that told the Biblical Christmas story and finally decided to design it myself. It took a tremendous amount of effort but I was finally able to pull it off. I have other Christmas dinnerware but this one is my favorite! There are eight different scenes that depict the Christmas story.

Setting a beautiful table for the holidays creates a big impact for a little effort. Since most of our meals are eaten in the breakfast room, this table will be decorated for the enitre holiday season. I hope that you are taking time to celebrate the season and you are making the most of the holidays!

Please stop by and visit my friends on the tour today. I have included links to their blogs and the bottom of this post.

As always, thanks for stopping by and especially for leaving a comment!

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Winter Beverage Station

This post contains an affiliate link.

I am so ready to celebrate the Christmas season and I have promised myself that I will take time to celebrate a little every day, in spite of all of the busyness! To kick off the season I am joining 7 other blogging friends for the Reindeer Recipes blog tour. If you have arrived from Clutter Cafe, welcome, and I hope you will browse around while you are here.

Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour too.

Today I’m sharing our winter beverage station. We enjoy a great cup of hot chocolate during the winter months and especially while we are decorating the Christmas tree.

Supplies are on the counter and ready for use.

Hot chocolate mix is kept in a Santa bottle.

Miniature marshmallows are in a snowman bottle.

Last year we made an addition to the beverage station. We added this electric milk frother. We use the frother for making hot chocolate and it is wonderful! It tastes just like hot chocolate from America’s favorite coffee shop for a fraction of the cost!

Our milk frother is no longer available from Williams Sonoma but this one is similar and has good reviews. Give it a try. I’ll bet you will like it.

The next stop on the tour is Brittany's Pantry. Be sure to follow the link over to Brittany’s blog to see the recipe she has for us today.

By all means, be sure to take time to celebrate the season!

The full Reindeer Recipes tour lineup is linked below:

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Quick Update

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did. After all of the cooking, feasting, visiting, and cleaning, I am ready to move on to Christmas. My decorating gigs are well underway and I hope to start at home in a couple of days. For the next 3 Tuesdays I will be participating in a blog hop and I hope you will come back and visit.

See you Tuesday!

Monday, September 12, 2016

New Life for Another Old Chair

This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through the links I make a small commission at no extra charge to you.

I love giving new life to something old. I just reupholstered this old chair for my mother to use in her bathroom.

I love a cute pagoda and I love the fabric that I used on the back of this chair. I chose to use a solid textured blue fabric for the seat. Let’s take a look at what it looked like before.

I found this chair in a second hand store for $35. That’s a little more than I usually pay for a single chair but it was in very sturdy condition and I knew it was perfect for my mom’s room.

There is a reason why upholsterers charge so much money. It is because it takes a long time to remove all of those darn staples!! I used this staple remover to speed things along. It really is a great tool to have. I’m thinking that if you are taking something to be reupholstered if you took the time to remove the staples first it should be much less pricey since taking the old stuff off is the most time consuming part of the project. You can get this one from Amazon for about $10 and it is worth every dime! It is eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.

It was hard to get a good picture of the bottom of the chair but I removed the cover from the bottom to work on the springs that had come untied and were bulging out the bottom.

This looks a little better after I retied the springs. I didn’t do anything to the finish of the wood since I like its aged character.

I kept all of the original stuffing including the old springs and horse hair. After a little work and vacuuming up all of the dirt and dust it was ready for the new fabric. I don’t have a picture but I ALWAYS use this pneumatic stapler, also eligible for Amazon Prime and well worth the $30. I have tried many times to use a heavy duty hand stapler and I can never get the staples all the way into the heavy wood frames. I use the stapler with this pancake compressor and I have been very happy with the results I get. All of those tools can be purchased for about $100 total so if you use them one time they are paid for!

Once all of the preparation was done, putting the new fabric on was very quick. Gluing the trim around the edges to cover the staples was a little time consuming and tricky.

The fabric is Ming Pagoda by P Kaufmann in the Zephyr color. The solid blue fabric was picked up on a remnant table so I don’t have the name of it. I already had the gimp trim left from another project.